by D. N. Hoxa
“Thanks for that.”
“Yeah, no problem. I’m assuming you want to be on duty?” He raised his eyebrows at my jeans.
“Yep. Amelia said she left her guards back.” Bender grinned, but I already knew my aunt had lied to me.
“Stick with me,” he said with a wink, then turned to Ms. Riley. “Let’s get you settled first, madame.”
Laughing with her mouth closed, Ms. Riley waved him off and blushed bright scarlet. We followed him deeper into the large hallway full of people wearing fancy dresses and suits, holding champagne glasses in their hands, talking and laughing like they all wanted to be there, when I was willing to bet my life that they weren’t. At least not for the right reasons.
The event was being held in the hall to our left. Just like Amelia had described it, it was huge, with a very high ceiling and with blue and violet lights coming from the led panels on the walls. The floor was set with a beautiful beige carpet, and the tables were what I assumed was tastefully decorated. In the middle of each was a small tree with a white trunk, and half of them had leaves made of crystal, and half of them made of green fabric. I assumed those were to honor both the Seelie and the Unseelie fairies.
The band was on the right corner of the room, and made of twelve people, each holding an instrument in his hands. The music was indeed relaxing, or it would be if I could get my mind to shut the hell up about how people were already starting to notice me—and it wasn’t just because of my jeans.
My aunt Amelia sat around the large round table together with the rest of the Bone coven leaders. A tree with crystal leaves was in the middle of it.
“Three o’clock,” Bender whispered in my ear, and as soon as I turned, I saw Theodora Sullivan coming at me with a huge smile on her face.
“Winter, you came!” she said cheerfully, then without warning, wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug.
Red covered my cheeks as I hugged her back, feeling more awkward by the second. I liked Theodora Sullivan. She was the only one of the Green coven leaders who seemed to like me back, but I didn’t think we were on hugging terms.
“Ms. Sullivan, it’s good to see you,” I said, honest for a change. She did look stunning with a grey satin dress and her hair falling in perfect waves over her right shoulder.
“It’s good to see you, too. How have you been?” she said, then thought to look down at me. “Don’t tell me they made you work tonight. They shouldn’t have!”
“But I wanted to,” I said in a rush, before she decided to go speak to my aunt about it.
“You do deserve to enjoy tonight,” she said, pressing her lips together as if she were sorry for me. If she only knew…
“I already am.” I tried to sound cheerful, but I doubted I managed.
“Winter, I need you back here,” Bender called. He was already at the Bone coven table, standing behind Ms. Riley, who was smiling at my aunt like she owned the whole world.
“Right. So, I need to go,” I said to Theodora Sullivan, who laughed at me.
“Go,” she said, shaking her head. “Do try to have some fun.”
Well, I wasn’t going to make any promises.
Just like I suspected, Bender had called me just to get me away from Theodora, though I must admit, being welcomed by her in that place wasn’t an entirely bad feeling. My aunt obviously didn’t approve of my outfit but to her credit, she didn’t comment on it.
“I’m glad you made it,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I’ve saved you a seat, just in case.” The empty seat was between her and Caroline Davis, Bender’s sister. No thanks.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said with a grin. “You look great, by the way.” Her dress was green, with only one shoulder, and with a pretty sparkly belt around her thin waste. It suited her perfectly.
“I need to go check the back,” Bender said, raising his brows in question because he wasn’t sure if I wanted to go with him just yet.
Hell, yeah.
I nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Grab a drink or two. It might help you relax!” Amelia called behind us.
It might have been a good idea, but I needed my head clear for what was coming. I didn’t want to accidentally cause a scene in front of all these people. Bad for business and my reputation, not to mention my aunt would never let me hear the end of it. For now, I got that thought off my head. The fairies, according to Bender, weren’t going to be there in another half an hour, so until then, I followed him around while he checked that the men he hired to help were all in place to ensure that everything would go smoothly once the royalty arrived.
Three
I caved.
Three minutes before the fairies were expected to arrive, a vampire waiter passed by me with a tray full of champagne glasses in hand, and I took one. My nerves were getting the best of me and I couldn’t help myself.
The reason they’d chosen this place for the event before the meeting was because a portal to the fairy realm was somewhere right behind it. Bender didn’t think it was a good idea to go check it out because ECU people were guarding it, and I wasn’t too eager to see it, either. What if the fairies came through while we were there?
Bender and I, and all the other security managers of all covens and packs, stayed at the beginning of the room, far away from the main crowd and important tables, ready for whatever might come our way. The fairies were going to get in through the door on the other side, which would lead them right to their table, the only one in there with two trees on it. My aunt kept looking back at me, making sure I knew that she was still saving me a seat, but every time I met her eyes, I shook my head. I was a chicken. Whatever. But I really didn’t want to be that close to the fairies when they walked in.
“You ready?” Bender whispered in my ear while we all looked at the door through which our guests were soon going to appear.
“Of course,” I said with a nod. Whatever happened, I was armed to the teeth and magic burned within me, brighter than ever.
“You know what I mean,” said Bender. “Are you ready to see him?”
It was so awkward to talk to him about Julian, especially after the talk we had almost three weeks ago in Amelia’s garden. He still hadn’t moved to New York, and Lynn still hadn’t come to work with me, but I hadn’t asked why yet, because I didn’t want to appear eager or anything, and give him the wrong idea.
“I think so,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if that was the truth.
“Buckle up, Wayne,” Bender said and straightened his shoulders. The whole room fell silent. “They’re here.”
Closing my eyes for a second, I tried to calm my racing heart. Then I saw the fairies walk inside the hall, and I didn’t breathe until they were all in.
The first fairy must have been a guard. He wore a midnight blue velvet suit with golden buttons, but his suit looked cheap compared to what the next two people behind him wore. The woman had a ball gown on, white and gray and baby blue blended to perfection, and with every step she took, it gave you the impression that glitter fell all around the floor. She held her head high, her brown hair combed behind her head so beautifully, it looked like it was made of silk. Her ears were perfectly visible, as well as the blue rocks that shone on her earrings much brighter than diamonds.
Her arm was laced in a man’s, whose suit was dark grey with silver, triangle-shaped buttons, and the collar of his shirt was made of white sparkling stones. His blonde hair was also combed behind him to perfection, and his eyes, more blue than violet, made you think of ice.
I didn’t have to wonder about who they were. The man looked like a carbon copy of his son, who was walking right behind him. The couple were Julian’s parents.
When I saw his face, my knees shook. With his hair cut short again, just like it was when he was still pretending to be a Blood witch, he looked much younger than the last time I saw him. But that wasn’t the only thing that made him look different. Maybe it was the look on his face, so cold and emotionless, and the way h
e kept his eyes on the back of his father’s neck without even blinking. Something stabbed me right in the heart as I waited and waited for him to look around, but he never did.
By his side walked three women, and right behind them was another man, one who had the same posture as Julian, but that’s where the similarities ended. He wore a black velvet suit, too, and the women all wore white ballgowns, and their necks were decorated with a satin ribbon: one grey, one blue, one turquoise.
My eyes were stuck on Julian’s face while they walked slowly into the middle of the hall to where the two remaining ECU members were waiting. Three more men and another woman wearing a normal black gown walked in behind them along with two other guards. It was all I could do not to start running toward him and demand he look at me. Every cell in my body screamed in silence for his attention.
“Is the portal secure?” Bender said, calling my thoughts back to my surroundings. He was talking into a microphone under his sleeve that I hadn’t even noticed. I couldn’t hear what the guy on the other line said, but since he hadn’t started running yet, I figured the portal was secured. Bender turned to me. “We just gotta wait this out. It’ll be over soon.” It sounded like he was speaking more to himself than to me.
I did try to keep my eyes on him, but instead, they moved on their own accord and stopped on Julian’s face.
This time, I found him looking right at me.
Against my will, my lips stretched and I smiled at him before I even realized it. God, how I wanted to be mad and just slap the heck out of him for leaving me waiting for so long. But instead, when his eyes sparkled and one corner of his lips turned up, all I could think about was getting him somewhere alone so we could, um…talk.
“Look who it is,” Bender said. “Prince Charming in the flesh.” He didn’t look happy about it, either. “Are those his sisters?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered, unable to look away from Julian’s face. The half smile he gave me dripped mischief and the light in his eyes shone only for me. I used to hate it when people didn’t blink, but now that he looked at me and me only, like the hall and the people around us didn’t even exist, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
And then…Julian winked.
Lava poured down my throat, melting my insides, and red covered my cheeks. We were across the room from each other, he and I, but damn if I didn’t feel like he was right in front of me.
“When’s the meeting again?” I mumbled to Bender. This whole event thing was just a show for the meeting that the ECU, the coven and pack leaders were going to have with the fairies right after it. And once they all went behind closed doors, Julian and I could finally talk.
“After dinner,” Bender said. “They’re about to take their seats right now.” Then, he brought his wrist to his lips. “Is everything in place?”
After dinner. That could work. How long could dinner last, anyway?
And now that the Seelie fairies had arrived, all dressed in white and gold, most with golden blond hair, it was only a matter of time before it began. To give myself a second to breathe, I tore my eyes from Julian’s—it was painful, I assure you—and I looked at the Seelies. Their guards were dressed in white, and their Queen had a ballgown on, too. Behind her and the King were only two men, and behind them, a step or two away, another four fairies. Two men and two women. While the Unseelies screamed ice and cold, the Seelies were all sun and warmth and rainbows. Looking at their faces was almost overwhelming. Beauty must have been invented to describe them.
But then…my breath caught in my throat as my eyes fell on the face of the last woman on the line. The hall went completely dark. My ears blocked out every sound and all my eyes could see was her.
The same thought I’d had the last time I saw that face went through my mind.
Not possible. Not possible. Not fucking possible.
Her blonde hair was tied in a low bun behind her back, her pointy ears clearly visible. She wore a strapless dress and a transparent, sparkly shawl around her thin arms. The tear shaped necklace on her chest shone bright red.
I couldn’t get enough of the sight of her, even as Bender called my name.
Then, her eyes found mine.
Even my heart stopped beating for a long second, right until she smiled, and her smile whispered death.
It was her. Jane Dunham.
Before I realized it, I was running as fast as my legs allowed toward her as part of my brain continued to try and convince me that this wasn’t real. She couldn’t be there because she was dead. I’d killed the Hedge witch and her five friends on the same night, and Bender had put a knife in her heart, too. I saw it all with my own eyes, and when the ECU took her body and examined it, they contained it afterward.
But none of those thoughts changed the view in front of me. Her face grew closer and closer as I ran with my knife in hand, and her smile brighter and brighter, right up to the second when I reached out and wrapped my fingers around her throat.
Screams from somewhere behind me, but I was more focused on my left hand, on my skin touching hers. She felt so goddamn real, it shouldn’t have been possible.
And she suddenly looked terrified, too.
I didn’t let that stop me, though. I pushed her with all my strength, my knife under her chin, my beads buzzing right in front of her eyes, ready to cut through her skull if needed, until her back hit the wall.
“Drop your weapon, right now!” someone called, but I ignored him.
“How are you here? I killed you with my own hands,” I hissed at Jane’s face. She had pointy ears, yes, and her eyes had a violet hue to them, but it was her. Just like it had been her in the fairy realm, before she’d disappeared.
“You’re hurting me,” she whispered, and wrapped her cold hands around my arm. “P-p-please…”
What the fuck?
“You’re not fooling anyone, you bitch! Tell me what you did. How are you alive?” I shouted. She could play her games all she wanted, but I saw right through whatever magic she’d used to disguise herself as a fairy.
“Wayne, you need to step back!”
A hand on my shoulder. Bender was right behind me. Thank God.
“It’s her!” I said and pulled Jane Dunham by the throat so that he could see her face. “It’s the Hedge witch!”
“Wayne, stop it. Let her go!” he hissed in my ear.
Was he…was he kidding, was that it?
I turned to look at Bender. He was unusually pale, his whole face wet with sweat. “Please, stop this.”
“But…” My eyes moved to the fairy’s face. Fucking hell, it was her! How could he not see it? “Bender, it’s Jane Dunham. You saw her, too. How can you not recognize her?”
But Bender didn’t care about what I said. “Let. Her. Go.”
I never got the chance to do it myself, though. Someone grabbed me by the arms and pulled me back before Bender’s words even registered in my brain.
Covering her neck with her hands, Jane Dunham breathed heavily, and tears streamed down her face. Had I lost my fucking mind, or was she really crying? I just didn’t get it. I saw her with my own eyes that night, and I dreamed of her many, many times. You just didn’t forget a face like hers.
My beads stayed in front of her while two werewolves held me by the arms. A breath later, and I realized that everybody was looking right at me. All the guests were on their feet, gathered around me, looking completely in shock. Except for Julian, who had his thick brows narrowed, and was the only one in the room who was analyzing Jane Dunham.
“She’s a Hedge witch,” I said to him, though he was standing behind his father and two of their fairy guards. “She’s the Hedge witch, the one I killed. I don’t know how she’s here, but it’s her, I guarantee it.”
“Madness!” the King of the Seelie Court shouted, his voice bringing shivers down my back. Then he turned to the other fairy King. “She is yours. Deal with it!”
Yours? What the hell did that mean?
; Gritting his teeth, Julian’s father, the King of the Unseelie Court, stepped forward. “Who are you to make such accusations, witch?!” His eyes, spitting white flames, took all of me in and the disgust at the sight of me was evident in his face.
“It doesn’t matter who I am. It’s her you should be worried about,” I spit, while Jane Dunham still cried, shaking her head and massaging her neck with her slim fingers.
“This is unacceptable!” the Seelie King said. He stepped in front of Julian’s father and looked down at me as if I were no bigger than a bug. “You dare to disrespect us in this way?”
“I’m not disrespecting anyone!” I shouted and tried to break free from the grip of the werewolves, but they wouldn’t budge. “Let go of me, right now.” I looked at Bender, who was still as pale as a ghost, but he nodded at the werewolves, and I was finally free. I took half a step closer to the fairy Kings, and the Unseelie guards stepped forward, too, as if to say that’s far enough. “Look, I fought her seven months ago in Staten Island, and I killed her. Eli Bender was with me and he saw her, too. I don’t know how she looks like a fairy, but her friends disguised themselves as wolves, so I wouldn’t put it past her to have done the same. I swear to you, I’m not lying!”
Maybe I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, but everything was going to cleared out soon. This was Jane Dunham, and I was going to make sure she was exposed in front of everyone, right now, before I let her out of my sight. My beads circled over her head—my way of telling her that her end had come, for real this time. But she just continued to cry, thinking anyone was buying her act.
Then, Julian’s father stepped forward and looked at Bender. “Is this true?”
As if he’d just woken up, Bender leaned back and raised his brows. “Yes, yes, we fought the Hedge witches together with Wayne.”
Then, the Unseelie King turned to Jane Dunham. Finally. “Was she there?” He pointed right at her. A cry escaped Jane’s lips and I grinned. There was no way I’d let her get away without cutting her body into pieces this time. I was going to make sure I—